tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu May 16 15:19:58 1996
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Re: Optima: KLBC
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: Optima: KLBC
- Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 17:23:05 -0500
Ford writes:
>The concepts of maxima and minima seem to be quite nasty.
We do have a way to express superlatives using the law'/puS construction,
with the word {Hoch} in the second noun's slot (TKD 6.6):
{la' jaq law' Hoch jaq puS} "The commander is boldest of all."
A straightforward revision of this can give:
{Hoch jaq law' la' jaq puS} "The commander is the least bold of all."
> I thought of this:
>
> "What is the maximum warp factor of flying chocolate",
>
>and panicked. This is about as far as my thought went:
>
> *......* 'oH nuq'e' what is *......*
> puvbogh juch *......* *......* of flying chocolate
>
>Then I ran into the no superlative adjective problem...
There are lots of games we can play with law'/puS, but most of them
are rather ugly. It's not simple to pick out one of its parts to be
referred to elsewhere. The best ones often use multiple sentences.
>What am I meant to do if I want to translate something like "maximum speed"?
>Should I try to say something like "speed which is bigger than .." nope,
>nothing seems to be working, this time...
{puvtaHbogh yuch pIvlob tIn law' Hoch tIn puS. nuq 'oH pIvlobvetlh'e'?}
"The warp factor of flying chocolate is greatest. What is that warp factor?"
This comes close, but it's not perfect.
{nuq Do tIn law' puvtaHbogh yuch Do tIn puS?}
"What speed is faster than that of flying chocolate?"
This is also imperfect, especially with the suspicious phrase {nuq Do}.
There's no simple formulaic answer. A direct translation isn't possible
here, but there are usually *good* translations. In this specific case,
I think I can suggest a reasonable alternative to your attempted phrasing:
{pIvlob 'ar chavlaH puvtaHbogh yuch?}
"How many warp factors can flying chocolate achieve?"
This treats a "warp factor" as a measure of velocity (like km/h).
-- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj